Talking Law

Today’s episode is all about brand protection issues prior to a business sale. In order to talk informatively about this, we brought back our resident trademarks expert Grace Yi of Aspect Legal.

Today we have Grace Yi, our resident trade mark specialist, to talk about the ins and outs of the trade mark process and in particular, today we want to answer the questions that we are most often asked about by first time trade mark applicants. So we thought we'd put together a podcast episode where we run through the trade mark process and answer all of the commonly asked questions.

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Today we are joined by our resident trade mark specialist, Grace Yi, to talk about the ins and outs of the trade mark process. This episode focuses on the frequently asked questions by first time trade mark applicants, and gives a general overview of the complex, but pivotal, trade mark process.

CLICK HERE to download a copy of the TM Process.

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Episode Highlights:

* What is a trade mark?

* Common law trade marks and registered trade marks

* Benefits of having a registered trade mark

* An overview of the trade mark application process

* Stage 1 Search and Advice

* Stage 2 Prepare and Lodge

* Stage 3 Examination

* Stage 4 Opposition Period

* Stage 5 Registration

* Important Reminders

What is a trade mark?

A trade mark is the sign, wording or symbol that distinguishes you in the market, from other traders in your industry. There are many different things that can operate as a trade mark, but the most commonly sought protection by our clients, are words contained in a brand, a logo, or a combination of the two.

2 Types of trade marks

* An unregistered trade mark, which is called a common law trade mark

* A registered trade mark

2 Benefits of having a registered trade mark

If a person goes through the process of getting a registered trade mark, they get two really crucial benefits; a shield and a sword.

* A trade mark operates as a shield, protecting you from infringing on other peoples marks.

* A trade mark ALSO operates as a sword, allowing you to stop someone infringing your rights by using a mark that is too similar or too close to yours.

A trade mark gives you the ability to commercialise your business, if you're thinking about licensing or franchising in the future. Having a trade mark registration on the trade mark database will also block people from registering a mark that is too similar to yours in the first place.

Very few of these trade mark enforcement matters ever need to reach the courts. We get a lot of good response from just proactively communicating with infringers and making it clear what our client’s rights are on the basis of the trade mark registration they hold.

Our Trade Mark Services

Our team at Aspect Legal specialises in providing trade mark registrations, and general advice on brand protection and commercialisation for companies and individuals based anywhere in the world.

So if you work in creating brands or logos for business, or if indeed you are a business needing assistance in protecting your brand, we offer a free 15-minute consultation with one of our lawyers to discuss how we can help you or your client.

We also provide a free trade mark pack,

Joining us today is Simon Bedard, the founder and CEO of Exit Advisory Group. In this episode, Simon and I cover some really interesting topics about the remuneration model in business broking and some of the challenges facing the industry, and perhaps the opportunities that this brings into the future.

Today we analyse the government's initial briefing for the 2018-2019 Australian Federal Budget and bring you the information contained in that briefing about illegal phoenixing activity. These are extremely important issues for directors of companies to be aware of so listen on for our quick updates on the Federal Budget 2018 in relation to combating illegal phoenixing.

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Today we analyse the government's initial briefing for the 2018-2019 Australian Federal Budget and bring you the information contained in that briefing about illegal phoenixing activity. These are extremely important issues for directors of companies to be aware of so listen on for our quick updates on the Federal Budget 2018 in relation to combating illegal phoenixing.

* Speak to a lawyer about an issue you are facing now

* Leave us a message with a legal issue that you want us to cover on the podcast

Episode Highlights:

* What is illegal phoenixing?

* New phoenix offences introduced

* Preventing directors from improperly backdating resignations

* How is government going to prevent directors from improperly backdating resignations?

* Extension of the director penalty regime

* Warnings and reminders for directors and suppliers

Hi it's Joanna Oakey here and welcome back to talking law. Today we are talking about the Federal Budget 2018 and in particular the introductions in relation to combating illegal phoenixing. The government has just a couple of days ago announced their plans to reform the corporations and tax laws and provide regulators with additional powers in an attempt to deter and disrupt illegal phoenixing activity.

What is illegal phoenixing?

Illegal Phoenixing is where a new company is created to continue the business of a company that has been deliberately liquidated to avoid paying its debts.

An example here is that a director might be running a company responsibly but remains unable to pay its debts. So then the director transfers the company assets to another company with the same or similar name often for little or no value before then handing the company over to a liquidator. The director then seeks to avoid paying any creditors including suppliers and employees through the failed company’s liquidation as it's wound up and then continue to operate the new entity that has been stripped out of these liabilities.

Often the ATO being one of the highest level creditors and as I said before you know other creditors might be suppliers, employees and business partners. Now this practice of Phoenix seeing results in customers not receiving goods or services they have paid for if they've prepaid. Obviously lost income for suppliers who may have provided goods or services on credit and haven't been paid for those, lost taxation that hasn't been paid to the ATO and lost wages and entitlements for affected employees.

Effectively the government looks at it in this way. Illegal phoenix operators gain an unfair advantage over their honest competitor businesses. And this of course has a broad economic impact and the word Phoenix effectively comes of course from the fable of the phoenix bird rising from the ashes, so this is where the phrase has come from.

New Phoenix Offences Introduced

Let's talk about the government's reforms. The government's reforms in the new budget as has been proposed just in the last few days is that new phoenix offences will be introduced to target people,

Today we hone in on the franchise business model. To help us do that, we brought back Martin Lo Surdo of Amplify Business to walk us through the sorts of questions that both potential franchisors and franchisees might be thinking about.

Today we talk about the element of misrepresentation and how it can potentially occur in the sale and purchase of a business and how it can hold risks for both buyers and sellers. To give depth to this discussion, we brought back our resident expert in this area of law, Elizabeth Lee.

Today we pick up on our conversation last week with Ben Walker and we drill into the practical reality of choosing between tax structures and the impact this may have if you’re planning on selling the business in the future.

Today we pick up on our conversation last week with Ben Walker, the founder and CEO of the accounting firm Inspire. In this episode, we drill into the practical reality of choosing between tax structures and the impact this may have if you’re planning on selling the business in the future. Then we’ll close out with a discussion on the concept of superannuation and multi-layer structuring - why and when business owners ought to consider these approaches.

Links

* Speak to a lawyer about an issue you are facing now

* Leave us a message with a legal issue that you want us to cover on the podcast

Episode Highlights:

* Importance of being future-minded when deciding on your business structure

* Complex business structures cause deals to fall over completely

* Superannuation: a protected space for diversified investment

* Multi-layer structuring: different layering within organisations

Importance of being future-minded when deciding on your business structure

One of the things that strike me from a practical perspective is if you're starting a business and you're thinking about a company versus trust structure, you need to perhaps have some mind to what you might want to do in the future as to whether or not you might want to bring partners on board. - Joanna Oakey

Complex business structures cause deals to fall over completely

Sometimes businesses end up in these highly complex structures that they don't understand, let alone people coming in as potential buyers.

Remember the KISS principle - Keep It Simple Stupid. I love that principle. I really operate by that.

- Joanna Oakey

Superannuation: a protected space for diversified investment

It scares me when business owners make a choice not to contribute at all to super because they see their business as their sole superannuation. - Joanna Oakey

The Deal Room Podcast - a sister podcast!

If you’re a professional involved in business sales and acquisitions activity (i.e. a broker or accountant), or if you are a business owner looking to expand by acquisition or if you are building to sell your business in the future, check out Talking Law’s sister podcast – The Deal Room! Together with Talking Law, these are now two of the top legal podcasts in Australia!

The Deal Room Podcast contains information, interviews and tips & tricks relating to the world of business sales and acquisitions. We love this area of law, and thought it was high time we took some of our specialist knowledge and shared it in commercial context, rather than just talking about legal stuff!

We release new episodes every tuesday. You can listen to our episodes on www.thedealroompodcast.com or subscribe to The Deal Room Podcast on iTunes to be the first to know when a new episode is...